-- Nearly 167,000 women were in the enlisted ranks, making up 14.2% of that force.

-- There were 36,000 women in the officer corps, or 16.6%.

-- Among the top ranks, 69 of the 976 generals and admirals -- 7.1% -- were women. There were 28 female generals in the Air Force, 19 in the Army, one in the Marine Corps and 21 female admirals in the Navy.

-- Of the 3,698 new female officers in 2011, 579 were graduates of the nation's service academies.

-- In addition, 18% of the 722,000 enlisted reservists and National Guard troops and 19% of their 113,000 officers are women.

-- In the Coast Guard, now a division of the Department of Homeland Security, women made up 10.5% of the total force of 44,000 active-duty and reserve personnel.

-- Enlisted women made up 2.7% of the military's front-line units. Women were barred from the infantry, but were allowed to serve on gun crews, air crews and in seamanship specialties. Among officers, women represented 5.4% of those involved in "tactical operations."

-- Despite the official ban on combat, women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan often found themselves engaged in firefights. Women made up 67 of the nearly 3,500 Americans lost in hostile fire in Iraq and 33 of the 1,700-plus killed in combat in Afghanistan; more than 600 others in Iraq and 300 in Afghanistan were wounded.

Assignments:

-- Among the enlisted ranks, women were most represented in the medical (30.5%) and administrative (30.1%) specialties. They made up about 17% of supply units, 14% of communications staff and 10% of electronics technicians.

-- Health care was the top field for female officers, at 39%. They made up nearly 28% of administrative officers, 19% of intelligence officers and 18% of supply officers.

Allowing women to fill hundreds of thousands of combat roles from which they are currently excluded is a poor idea. Furthermore, the decision-making process used to bring this change about is deeply flawed.

In the coming years, lifting the ban on women in combat might prove particularly challenging in the infantry, among the most physically demanding and tradition-bound branches of the Marines and the Army.

Kimberly Bratic hauled her gear up Afghan mountains. She went into areas where Taliban lived. She grieved when fellow soldiers were blown up by a suicide bomber. She missed her family for a year, and heard the worry in her sons' voices when she got the rare chance to call home.